Opioids What happens when you come off of Naltrexone? Does it feel good?

[Mycophile]

I sent you a detailed PM back on the issue @Mycophile.

I still think, regardless of my experience, you should give it a try. My absolute honest opinion though? Try it without naltrexone. There were many variables in the multiple times I quit heroin, but all I know for sure is that it didn't stick when I tried naltrexone. It was actually the fastest I relapsed. Sure CT was terrible and I didn't feel normal for a while, but I eventually rebounded and felt better than I ever have once my chemistry balanced out. Naltrexone just introduced a different set of problems to worry about instead of the original ones and another chemical mishap in my brain.

I should also mention that I was on a suboxone taper 2 weeks prior to starting naltrexone. When I started it I found myself unable to sleep, eat, socialize, feel empathy, happiness, sadness, basically anything else you could name that occurs in the brain besides boredom and frustration.

I'm not a doctor obviously, and I am only using my experience to inform my replies at this moment. You'll never know for sure unless you try it. Like I mentioned in my PM my friend from treatment started it the exact same time I did and stayed with it for over a year. If he had any complaints about it I didn't hear them. You gotta find what works for you.

Wait, i just read your PM and you seemed to be saying i SHOULD give it a try, and now you seem to start off saying that and THEN say not to

What is your true opinion and why

Regardless, i am staring tomorrow at 25mgs and then going up to 50 on sunday.

I have too hard a time moderating my drinking or kratom through sheer will power alone.

I've done it before, more with kratom than drinking though. I went a year without kratom, but the thing is, back then i was terrified of the wd cause i thought it would be really bad and that was why i should stop.

However, i found out in the past 3 months, and I and my doctor THINK that the fact that i take klonopin has A LOT to do with my kratom wds being so minor, but after years of keeping myself from using kratom more than 3-4 days a week i finally ended up addicted and using it 2-3 times a day for 3 months and the end result was that it STILL only took me 5 days of sleeping constantly and feeling depressed for the WD to go away.

So now i'm NOT afraid of Kratom WD cause i know for me it's no big deal...so long as i have 3-5 days off work, and even if not i can taper, but it causes me to be WAY WAY too lazy.

It used to motivate me, but now i CANNOT exercise on it and have no motivation to improve my life cause i'm content just being high when in reality i'm not satisfied with my situation, so it's far more psychologially a problem than physically.

And with drinking i can never really go SUPER long without, like i can stop drinking for a couple weeks, hell, when i was competing in brazilian jiu-jitsu tournaments and had to lose a lot of weight to make my weight class i went 3 months without drinking a few times, but I really could never easily go more than a week or two UNLESS i had MAJOR motivation and a reason to do so.

Now i have high cholesterol and it's dangerously high because i am overweight and the doctor thinks it will go down if i lose weight, but i can't lose wait cause i drink too much, not cause of my eating habits, so i know if i just stop drinking and exercise regularly all the weight will come off and my cholesterol will be normal and healthy again, but then the problem is that I NEED TO KEEP IT THERE FOR LIFE or i could endanger my heart, and i'm the sort of dude who once he starts drinking a lot he starts eating a shitload too and i have put on and then lost and put back on like 30-50lbs about 12-15 times in my life, so that's no good, even though i do know how to lose weight when i'm motivated, i can't drink a lot and lose weight, just not possible.

So i want a medical method that will FORCE me to abstain and/or moderate WHEN I CHOOSE, and then if i want to stop the naltrexone to drink or use kratom my doctor said it really would only take a few days off from the naltrexone FOR MOST PEOPLE, to begin to get full pleasure from the kratom or booze again, but then you have to be careful if you go back on naltrexone not to be physically dependent on kratom when you do....so yeah...it's definitely a bit of a dicey game to play but she said she's had several patients who were addicts do that kind of thing.

So yeah, as you'll see in my PM, my doctor says these side effects you have had are not typical ones and also, you played with your dose and you were on suboxone first so maybe you might not have been fully off it before taking natrexone which can be a disaster.

I'm going forward with it and hoping for the best.

I mean, for someone who both likes drugs but wants to be able to force himself to abstain or moderate for as long as he should choose, what better way but to take a pill or shot that can stop you?

And it's not that hard a choice to make cause again, it's not like i cant stop taking the naltrexone if i want to use kratom or drink. Even if i get the shot it eventually wears off, but it's improving areas of my life that i just can't seem to move forward in while drinking and using so much kratom that are more important to me now.

I don't plan to stop drugs and drinking forever, but i need a LONG period of sobriety, and this is the best idea i've got for how to do it.

And even IF I did get those negative side effects, it's not like they wouldn't go away eventually if i stopped, i mean, of course they would EVENTUALLY.

But you never answered the question; how long did it take for you to start being able to feel pleasure again after you stopped the naltrexone?

 

[Mycophile]

I was on Naltraxone implants for many times and I never experienced loss of weight or depression, it didn't effect my drinking at all by the way. Actually, I used to drink pretty much every day and took speed as well. The depression while being on Naltraxone was that I could be on heroin.
I used cocaine before my heroin use as well but it never became an issue but IV cocaine became one of my worst addictions when I started using it with heroin. I used to get H to not get sick but cocaine became the stronger addiction. I had to get it even if it didn't cause any physical withdrawal when I didn't use it.

Wait, i'm confused so i have a couple questions.

First, you were still able to enjoy drinking while on naltrexone?

Cause that's unusual.

By most accounts you CAN still get drunk, but you will not really get significant pleasure out of it.

So you are saying you were able to enjoy drinking JUST AS MUCH AS BEFORE while on naltrexone?

That's really odd and abnormal if so.

Did it help with your cravings for either alcohol or heroin?

Also, you said ''i could be on heroin'', but it's generally though impossible to get pleasure from opioids while on FULL doses of naltrexone like 25-50mgs, though not with microdosing low dose or ultra low dose.

How were you able to take and get pleasure from heroin while on naltrexone?

That should be impossible at full doses of naltrexone.

 

[KS78]

Yes, I never experienced any effects regarding alcohol. I enjoyed it as much as I did before.

The heroin comment is messed up because of my English. I meant to say that the depression that I have experienced while on Naltraxone was due to the fact that I couldn't enjoy/ use heroin.

As I said, it did nothing for alcohol cravings. Opiates, at the beginning I craved H as much as before but I think the key is spending as much time off opiates as one can. As time passed, I slowly started to be ok with living without shooting H. As the duration off H gets longer, I started to forget the feeling that I got from it; I didn't forget cognitively but I just didn't feel rage, anxiety any longer.

Finally, I need to say that after about 10 years off heroin, I got cocky and started dabbling with opium. In comparison to IV H & C in a barrel, it's very minor but I stupidly got dependent on opium.

 

[Blador]

A little late but I think I’ll add my personal experience. I’m on naltrexone 50mg/day for my fentanyl addiction.

The first few days I did feel generally down and unmotivated. I was already off opiates so WD was not the issue, but I did also have some personal troubles at that time.

What I found most noticeable was the effect it had when going to the gym. Usually working out gives me a major mood lift and relaxation. With naltrexone I was getting almost dysphoric when I left the gym. I think my mind may have been frustrated by expecting an endorphin high and not getting it. I still had a positive effect on my mood in the following hours, after the initial disappointment, but much more subtle.

After a week or two, I was feeling pretty much normal in my daily life. I still wouldn’t get a runners high but wouldn’t feel dysphoric either. Now I feel good immediately after working out but it always feels like something is missing and it is not as satisfying as it used to be.

I also wonder if the naltrexone is interfering in my emotions and behavior in other more subtle ways but I couldn’t tell right now. My libido is low at the moment but there could be other reasons for it. As for my interest in and satisfaction from food, I don’t think there was ever any difference.

As for the original question in the thread, I did stop naltrexone for a week a couple of months ago and, to my disappointment, didn’t feel any difference in my mood.

Maybe the half life of the drug is just too long and the shift into an antagonist-free neurologic environment is too gradual for it to be easily noticed. In my experience, even three days after my last dose I still had a partial blocking of the effects of fentanyl.

 

[Crackedout420]

Why did you lose weight and did you stop being able to experience pleasure from things like exercise, sex and food?

That's my big concern as i'm about to try it.

I want to try ultra low dose naltrexone or the sinclair method which i explained in my former post but my doctor is being stubborn and won't let me, but i'm probably going to find a way to try one or both regardless without her at some point.

I lost interest in everything, including smoking cigarettes. And wanting to eat. Hence the weight loss.